oooooh so there WAS a good reason I picked up Sociology of Media (SOC289 at MQ, not a bad unit particularly if you like the opportunity to dance/sing/act for group presentations in class like I do. Ooh, was that too much information?) last semester!
Main points I'm going to bring up are the "new" forms of communication - instead of pure face-to-face, we now have mediated interaction (letters, phonecalls, email and so on) and quasi-mediated interaction (recorded videos, TV etc). Can't remember the name of the person who I'm pulling these terms off... oh, I'll be nice.
*flicks through uni papers* John Thompson's "The Rise of Mediated Interaction" is your friend
* Mediated interaction as a "norm" in society
Without doing massive cutting and pasting from my beautiful SOC289 essay (2 marks off a Distinction... considering that I was expecting a Pass, I am rather pleased with this), an important point to me is that whilst we still consider face-to-face the "best" form of communication (breakups, catching up with best friends/old friends/family members etc) all the other forms of communication have wormed their way into our hearts. Don't know about the rest of you, but I feel naked without my phone. omg, someone could call me and I'd miss it. Or I might miss an sms. Etc, etc
* Ease of mediated interaction
To elaborate a little on why mediated interaction is now something of a norm, consider the fact that it's highly convenient. Why, sitting at this computer I can type this out AND talk on msn AND flick to check my email AND play a computer game roughly all at the same time. Rainy day? No worries. Freezing cold outside? Doesn't matter because I'm sitting right next to a heater. Most mediated forms of interaction (most if not all are technology-related) tend to be highly convenient AND comfortable. Lovely, isn't it?
* Pressure to be on call 24/7
Back in ye olde days, all we had to do to avoid someone was to hide behind a tree. These days it doesn't work because they can call up our mobile phones. Now, unlike home phones, there seems to be this unwritten rule that you can call a mobile phone at any time of the day or night, regardless of where that person is. Sure it's great in regards to the whole "I can contact someone RIGHT NOW" but it also means we're pressured to be "on call" 24/7. It's not so easy to "loose yourself" anymore, either because we've trained ourselves to be constantly listening out for our mobile ringtones, or because you hear the mobile ringtone constantly and people will get really mad if you don't pick up.
* New ettiquette for these new forms of communication
It's considered rude if you don't respond to an sms within about 48 hours (tut tut you went 2 days without a phone?), and also - we all seem to be under this impression that the sky will fall if we don't answer our phone within like, 4 rings. I've seen so many people race to the phone to get there at the "appropriate" time, it's so weird. You feel "overenthusiastic" if you pick up too early, and really slack if you pick up any later.
* Old ettiquette still used in these new forms of communication
For the most part, we still start up email/msn convos with "hi, how are you?" because this is something ingrained into us (sms convos aside because we have character limits, however I'm sure if you had the space and were talking to a stranger you would do the whole introduction and hello thing). Note that we STILL are under some sort of obligation to keep up the "flow" of conversation, eg responding with "cool", "lol" or "ok" after the other person/s speak. I don't know whether I've mentioned it yet but body language and physical precense are probably the most powerful and intimidating "tools" used in face to face communication, when you take these away it's really anyone's ballgame. However techniques can still be used to 'dominate' the conversation, such as the use of all caps, fast typing etc etc. In phone convos, one person speaking faster can also be used to 'dominate' the conversation or indicate that that person has something they REALLY want to say (if this were real life they might jump up and down or make gestures to this effect).
* New "language" for these new forms of communication
Now in regular face to face communication we have fun things like vocal intonation, accents and body language that can tell us a lot about that person (what they're thinking, things they're not saying, how they're feeling and so on). But when you're behind a computer or looking at a letter or sms screen, you don't get stuff like this (however in a phone call you do still get vocal intonation, so maybe this is why it's like "the second best form of communication") BUT we have other "tools" of communication we like to use. Different fonts, bold/underline/italics, punctuation marks, emoticons. In fact there are even different languages that people like to use - such at netspeak and that elite computer netspeak (the one where you have that l33t thing or something).
*Under Construction whilst glitterfairy pats her back because OMG she remembers stuff from last semester...
